Dynamic Analysis and Stability of Articulated Liquid Cargo Vehicles with Tank Baffles

Articulated liquid cargo vehicles transporting inflammable fuels and dangerous chemical products require special consideration when traveling on urban roads or cruising at highway speeds. The road safety and handling of these kinds of vehicles may be adversely affected when negotiating sharp turns or travelling on slippery roads, which may result in either lateral instabilities or complete rollover of these tanker vehicles. Moreover, directional instabilities in these kinds of vehicle may also introduce an excessive yaw swing or may initiate the jack- knifing of the articulated tanker trucks. In order to overcome the instabilities of these tanker vehicles, installation of lateral baffles in the form of separating walls in the tanker were considered. The static roll and yaw plane models of these vehicles including lateral translation of the liquid inside the tank were developed. Using the static roll model, the rollover threshold of the vehicle is analyzed and the effect of these separating walls on the stability of the vehicle is studied. The yaw plane model is then used to predict the transient response and stability of the tanker vehicle under various road maneuvers. The governing differential equations were solved numerically to obtain the simulation results and optimum values of the parameters. Keywords: Tanker, Vehicle, Stability, vehicle dynamic, rollover, lateral baffles